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Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) Course

The Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) was born out of the experiences of long existing communities and cutting-edge educators in order to teach how to create a new way of living which brings together the four key dimensions of an ecovillage: social, cultural/worldview, environmental and economic.

From 2011 to the present, Damanhur Education has been a catalyst for the implementation of the EDE, organizing annual courses in Damanhur, in partnership with Gaia Education. Gaia Education is an active member of UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. The UNESCO GAP on ESD is a global effort to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of education and learning to accelerate progress towards sustainable development.

Damanhur Education is a Key Partner in the implementation of the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.

The course teaches many elements about how to create human settlements. One of the outcomes is showing students a new way of living which brings together the beforementioned four key dimensions of sustainability.

Ecovillage Design Education is:

An education where a thorough and objective assessment of the state of the planet is followed by regional, community, and place-based solutions.

An education that empowers individuals and communities with the knowledge for shaping their worlds and becoming more self-reliant while engaging in bioregional as well as international cooperation.

An education that is universal in scope but local in application, directed toward preserving precious cultural diversity.

An education where investigating theory is followed by practical application.

An education that imparts useful and instrumental life-skills as part of the curriculum.

An education relevant to people in rural and urban regions.

An education promoting and facilitating healthful planetary evolution, as well as the well-being and quality of life of individuals and their communities everywhere.

An education exploring and expanding the perceived limits of human potential.

An education that informs, enables and inspires community-based visions of a sustainable human civilization as well as the means to turn such visions into reality during the course of the 21st century.

GOALS OF THE COURSE

learning social tools for leadership, participatory decision making, group building and conflict resolution

gaining familiarity with holistic education in the four dimensions of sustainability